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Thank you so much -- this is exactly what I needed to hear. I will do the same for California state taxes.

Thanks BrokenRecord. I'm in California, and I'm definitely not getting a W-2. I looked up federal income tax rates and it looks like it's 15% for $8700-$35000 a year. I looked up CA state taxes and apparently it's 6% for my bracket. Does this really mean I should save 21% of my income for taxes? That seems VERY high, especially not including Medicare or FICA. I appreciate your help!

My understanding of my program is that the more exposure I have to professors, lecture series, and senior students, the better off I'll be. You should consider attending these even if you don't have courses those days.

I am a domestic student with a 30k/yr fellowship. It is paid out over 8 months and I recently got a check for $3,000, which means the school didn't take any of it out for taxes. My question is, do I have to save 10% or whatever of this money to pay the government at the end of the year? It's very inconvenient for me, but I really don't want to get screwed. I should mention that both my payroll department and department say they are not legally allowed to give me personal tax advice. It's very annoying that I can't get a straight answer. Thanks!

As soon as I found out I got into my program, I contacted one of the professors I was most interested in working with and set up a summer research assistant position. It's going well, but there was definitely a steep learning curve. I'm glad I started early, since the learning curve probably would've made my life miserable if I had had to do it while taking classes. tl;dr I like my summer research position.

Your laptop isn't old. Get a copy (legitimate or not-so-legitimate) of Windows and dual-boot it on your Mac via bootcamp. There are some extremely easy tutorials online.

Nice try, NP-hard traveling salesman problem. But in all seriousness, I always go with the cheapest coach flight I can find. Which airline did you sign up with for the frequent flyer miles? I think that makes all the difference.

Are you doing a thesis for your MS? I don't know what Capacity Development is, but it sounds like a bad idea. What if your other semesters aren't as clear and you can only complete half of one program?

I'm not in your field, but my general understanding is that a BSc. is usually a stronger degree than a BA. Take my words with some caution though, and maybe look into the curriculums and see which has a stronger clinical psychology program? You could even email a graduate school you're interested in and ask, I'm sure they wouldn't mind and would love to give advice.

I contacted a PI at my new grad school and asked if there was any room in his lab for a funded summer research rotation. I'm moving there on Friday and start on Monday.

If I were you, I would call or email the admissions department at USC and ask about the status of my decision. If they are still deliberating, I would explain my situation. There is nothing wrong with making them aware of other deadlines, and it is very late for admissions decisions. Good luck!

66.66%.

I can't speak for the fields of HCI or AI, but I was recently admitted to the USC Computational Biology and Bioinformatics PhD program and there are several PIs who are very enthusiastic about MS in CS students working in their labs. There is certainly research to be done at USC -- you should contact a few PIs before you make up your mind to see what opportunities are available. Oh, and if you're interested in CompBio, the PI I have in mind is Dr. Xianghong Zhou.

I received an email from USC when I got funding but no official acceptance letter until I got it in the mail.

I agree with Eclectic4 when he says that UC Berkeley is probably the best public university in the US. I do think that you should take a hard look at each individual program though, as USC has some VERY strong arts programs and my impression of UC Berkeley is as a science school. The campuses are both gorgeous. Another factor is cost -- USC is very expensive without a fellowship, are you funded?